Scientist in the Crib Excerpt

Andrew N. Meltzoff and Patricia K. Kuhl, two of the authors of The Scientist in the Crib, are the Co-Directors of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. Click the links below to read an excerpt from the book, which neuropsychologist Howard Gardner described as a "masterful synthesis of the latest findings about the minds of children."

Preface
Scientists and cribs? We wrote this book to show that scientists, cribs and children do belong together. For the last thirty years, scientists like us have been looking in cribs, playpens, nurseries and preschools. There have been hundreds of rigorous scientific studies that tell us how babies and young children think and learn...More »

Chapter One: Ancient Questions and a Young Science
Walk upstairs, open the door gently, and look in the crib. What do you see? Most of us see a picture of innocence and helplessness, a clean slate. But, in fact, what we see in the crib is the greatest mind that has ever existed, the most powerful learning machine in the universe...More »